Blogs. Retreats.

Recently people have been asking me to help set up blogs for them. Kind of weird, considering not many people read my blog to begin with. I do take it as a compliment though, because I get to help someone else with something that I know better than them about. Although I occasionally do write on this, I think that I find the most joy out of reading other blogs that I find. I like to follow different photography blogs and see what their inspiration is. I also like to read the thoughts of people I know, and know that I am normal because I do feel the same way. Honestly though, I just like to write.

 Over the weekend, I went on my youth group's winter retreat to a camp. As a tradition, we girls tend to  show up the guys after they sing the song "Goodnight, Ladies" to us. Last year, my friend, Maggie, and I wrote a rap for everyone to sing, which talked about what we did on the retreat. This year, we rewrote  part of Miley Cyrus' song, "Party in the USA".

I woke up in the morning at six AM
 in my sweats and my cardigan.
Welcome to the land of Sunstream Camp (AY!)
 am I gonna fit in?
Jumped in the shower here I am for the first time.
 Feelin' bad for all the people waitin' in line.
This is all so crazy. Everybody seems so Christian.
My tummy's turnin' and I'm feeling kinda homesick
Too many sessions and I'm nervous
'Til DJ plays my favorite song and
"By Your Side" comes on
and "East to West" comes on
and "God is Great" comes on

So I put my hands up to worship God
it's a party at Sunstream Camp
Clappin' my hands like yeah
Pumpin' my fist like yeah
So I put my hands up to worship God
it's a party at Sunstream Camp
Yeahhhhhh, Goodnight gentleman.
Yeahhhhhh, Goodnight gentleman.

I suppose that wasn't the point of going on a retreat, but it was one of the things that always makes a retreat memorable. I will always be able to look back and remember what we did because of those silly songs. One thing that was great about the retreat was when Gabe, our youth pastor, talked about God constantly pursuing us no matter what. The retreat was summed up with this quote by Jack Miller, which will continue to stick with me.

"Cheer up; you’re a lot worse off than you think you are, but in Jesus you’re far more loved than you ever could have imagined." 

Striding for him,
Melanie Leach